On Tuesday afternoon, news hit social media that unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora (22-1-1, 14 KOs) will pull out of Friday’s WBO purse bid with Top Rank’s Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs) and will now face Tim Tszyu (25-2, 18 KOs) in the rematch of their March 2024 war. Although that was reported by Lance Pugmire for Boxing Scene, according to the WBO President Gustavo Olivieri, Esq., Fundora has yet to formally communicate with the sanctioning body to vacate his title.
“As of today, we have not received any formal confirmation as to whether Fundora will vacate or fight Tszyu. Waiting to take affirmative action…purse bid will still go forward as scheduled,” Olivieri told FightsATW. This is a different WBO run by Olivieri than his predecessor Paco Valcarcel, as he has not turned a blind eye to mandatories and has forced fighters to either put up or shut up.
During the lead-in to the Fundora vs. Chordale Booker fight, Olivieri made it clear via social media that the winner would be ordered to have their mandatory defense against Zayas within 120 days of the order. Sure enough, right after Fundora stopped Booker, Olivieri posted the order, kicking off the negotiation period. Top Rank, TGB Promotions & Sampson Boxing began to negotiate, and all signs pointed towards a Fundora-Zayas fight in July. Even Fundora himself told FightsATW at his sister Gabriela’s media luncheon “should be” when asked if Zayas was next. To everyone’s surprise, news hit today that it will not be so.
This is an excerpt of the article posted on Boxing Scene. “WBC and WBO junior-middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora will not participate in Friday’s scheduled purse bid for his mandatory WBO title defense against Xander Zayas, sources have told BoxingScene. Fundora will instead fight old rival Tim Tszyu at the Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena with just the WBC belt up for grabs. July 19 is a possible date for the rematch, but Fundora’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told BoxingScene that nothing has yet been finalized, with three dates in July and August under consideration.”
Although this was put out there, there are plenty of hours before the Friday, 11 am PT WBO purse bid. This could be a last-minute negotiating tactic by Sampson to have Top Rank add more money to the pot, or the fight could truly be dead in the water. Regardless, there will be a purse bid tomorrow unless a deal for Fundora-Zayas is struck in the middle of the night. If Fundora-Tszyu is next, then it’ll be Zayas vs. Jorge Garcia Perez, who is fresh off the huge betting upset over Charles Conwell on DAZN two weeks ago. It isn’t an ideal matchup, but it will be the title shot Zayas has been itching for.
With regard to Fundora, the rematch with Tszyu would be much desired, especially since their first fight was a battle of attrition, with both fighters leaving a piece of themselves in the ring that they will likely never get back. Let’s see what happens in the next 24 hours.
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